Oak Cliff Gateway could go to City Council by August

@oakcliffgirl

Work began on the Oak Cliff Gateway plan in 2006, and now a proposal to rezone the 850-acres surrounding Lake Cliff Park could go to the full City Council this summer.

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City planner Neva Dean told the Oak Cliff Gateway Steering Committee last week that the city would like to meet with as many neighborhood groups as possible before the proposal goes to the City Plan Commission for a public hearing in July.

The abbreviated proposal refers heavily to Article 13 of the Dallas Development Code, which allows for form-based zoning. But it doesn’t include specific details that the volunteer committee has been hashing out for years.

Lake Cliff resident Linda Holt, who is on the committee, said she felt city staff “brushed off” the committee’s previous work.

“Council will have no idea” how much work the committee put in if they see only the abbreviated document, she said.

The draft ordinance does include a provision that allows for a diary use, which was included to allow Oak Farms to operate. But Oak Farms owner Dean Foods is closing that plant in June. A majority of committee members said they would not like another dairy to be able to operate there.

Committee members also say they would like to allow for buildings as tall as eight stories on Marsalis near Colorado and protect Lake Cliff Park’s skyline view.